Covid UK news live: Boris Johnson warns of ‘rough winter’ as lockdown unlikely to be eased before 19 July

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has received her second dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

On Monday, Ms Sturgeon became one of the more than two million Scots who have received two doses of the vaccine.

She tweeted: “Double vaccinated! Thank you NHSLouisaJordan.

“Please roll up your sleeve for both doses as soon as you are invited for an appointment – every single one of us who gets fully vaccinated is a step back to normality for all of us.”

Boris Johnson has warned of a “rough winter” with pressures on the NHS “for all sorts of reasons”, amid warnings from scientific advisers the UK could see another surge of Covid.

The prime minister, however, insisted “it’s looking good” for the government’s plan to end all remaining legal restrictions in England on 19 July — something Mr Johnson has referred to as the “terminus point”.

Last week chief medical officer, professor Chris Whitty, urged the health service to brace itself for a difficult winter, adding it was his expectation “we will get a further winter surge” of coronavirus, or a spike in cases of flu virus.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that travellers will face hassle and delays this year should they decide to holiday abroad. He said that this would be due to the priority being to keep the UK safe from the coronavirus.

He said: “I want to stress that this is going to be, whatever happens, a difficult year for travel: there will be hassle, there will be delays, I’m afraid, because the priority has got to be to keep the country safe and to stop the virus coming back in.”

When asked whether or not the government were thinking of easing the rules for those who have had both vaccines, Mr Johnson said: “We’re looking at it but I want to stress that the emphasis is going to be on making sure that we can protect the country from the virus coming back in.”

Health secretary Matt Hancock has said he will set out a plan for the government’s Covid vaccine ‘booster’ programme in the coming weeks.

But health leaders say planning must start now because it will be logistically difficult for the NHS to run the scheme while they deal with other challenges going into winter.

The futures of thousands of young people risk being permanently damaged by the pandemic unless the government does more to tackle an alarming rise in long-term unemployment, experts have warned.

While a mass unemployment crisis has been averted thanks largely to the furlough scheme, the number of young people out of work for six months or more has surged to a 10-year high.

Youth workers have cautioned that placing too heavy a focus on the headline jobless rate, which has remained lower than many predicted earlier in the pandemic, means that some of the most vulnerable groups are being ignored.

Data will be released in the coming weeks on whether or not mixing Covid-19 vaccinations could be appropriate for an autumn vaccine booster campaign, the Health Secretary has said.

Matt Hancock explained that although second doses of the current vaccines offered very strong protection, “there is more protection still that we think that you can get from a booster jab,”

He added that it would be necessary to “get the logistics right” for any future vaccine campaign. The news comes following GPs and NHS leaders expressing their concerns over how a campaign of this kind would be staffed.

Currently, seven vaccines are being tested in the Cov-Boost trial to see which could be used in any upcoming autumn vaccination programme.

Experts believe that all of the seven vaccines should boost immunity, with lab studies checking their response to variants circulating in the UK, including the Indian, Kent and South African strains.

The £19.3 million UK clinical trial is in the process of testing the Pfizer jab alongside those from AstraZeneca, Moderna, Novavax, Janssen from Johnson & Johnson, Valneva and CureVac.

“When we know the results of that (trial), then we will set out the full plans for the booster programme over the autumn,” Mr Hancock told BBC Breakfast on Monday.

“We’ve got to make sure we get the logistics right; for instance, GPs have been so heavily involved in this vaccination effort, but GPs have also got to do their day job, so that’s something we’re working hard on now and, in the next few weeks, when we get the clinical data through on what’s the most effective combinations to have… then we’ll set out all the details of the booster programme for the autumn.”

Fewer than one in 200 people returning to the UK from “amber list” countries are testing positive for Covid-19.

Data from NHS Test and Trace also revealed that no virus variants of concern were found in any of the travellers entering the country from the 167 destinations currently graded “amber” by the British government.

Between 20 May and 9 June, just 89 of the 23,465 passengers arriving from amber countries tested positive for the virus.

Margaret Keenan, who was the first person in the world to receive the Covid vaccine outside of trial conditions, is urging people to get the jab.

The 91-year-old received a dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine at Coventry’s University Hospital on 8 December 2020.

She told BBC Breakfast: “Whatever you thought before, please do have the jab.

“There is nothing to it. Don’t be afraid of a needle. It is just to save your life and to save other lives.”

She added that it “did feel very important to have it done” and said that she had been hopeful at the time that it would get “the ball rolling.”

Mrs Keenan said she had wanted to take the jab not just for herself but for “everybody and the NHS.”

She added: “The success of the vaccination is testament to what everyone can achieve if they put their minds together.

“I do not have any worries about the booster programme because we have already done it. We have done the first one and been successful in the rollout.”

Nightclubs in France will be allowed to re-open from 9 July, said government minister Alain Griset.

This will be the first time since the initial Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020 that the industry has been allowed to operate.

France eased its third national lockdown last month with the reopening of terraces on 19 May. Earlier in June, for the first time in seven months, restaurants, bars and cafes were allowed to reopen for indoor service.

Over 100 of France’s 1,600 nightclubs have been forced to shut permanently because of the pandemic crisis, according to hospitality trade union UMIH.

Olympic organisers have said that domestic spectators will be allowed at the summer’s Tokyo Games.

Attendance will however be capped at 10,000 people or 50 per cent of the venue’s capacity, whichever is the smaller number.

The news comes amid concerns that this could change again, should Japan’s Covid situation worsen before the Olympic Games begin on 23 July.

Tickets for an average of 42 percent of venue capacity have apparently been sold, although this will be distributed unevenly among the venues. Currently it is not clear how access will be allocated.